


Wine and Spirits

by Shoulder_Devil



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Friendship, Gen, bickering like an old married couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 06:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13782090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shoulder_Devil/pseuds/Shoulder_Devil
Summary: Georgie and Melanie share a bottle of wine while they go through footage of their trip into the tunnels for an episode of What the Ghost?





	Wine and Spirits

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place somewhere between episode 84-Possession and 86-Tucked In
> 
> Written for Piles of Nonsense Pairing Week.  
> It's only about a half hour after midnight and I haven't been to bed yet. That still counts as Friday right?

“White or red?”

Melanie looked up from the pictures she was scrolling through on her phone. “Huh?”

“White or red?” Georgie stood in the hallway of her flat holding a bottle of wine in each hand. “I thought we might as well make a proper night of it and open a bottle or two.”

Melanie briefly considered declining the offer. It was late and she really should be getting home. On the other hand, it had been a while since she had a relaxing night doing something normal for a change. Normal in this case meaning going through ghost hunt footage gathered from the tunnels beneath her new job.

“White,” She nodded her head in the direction of the bottle in Georgie’s left hand. “I went a little wild with sangria a few years back and now anything too red makes me nauseous.”

“Oh, I was there for that little adventure.” the other woman laughed, returning to the kitchen.

“You were? Huh, I suppose you were. That night is a bit of a blur.”

“I imagine it would be. Ghost Hunt UK had just launched its first episode and you were celebrating. I’m not judging.” The pop of a cork echoed through the flat. “Well, I’m not judging much.”

“Thanks for that,” Melanie deadpanned, “you are a true friend.”

“‘Oh, I’m only having the one! I’ll be fine!’ Totally fine, you were.”

“I did only have the one-”

“And it was the size of a goddamned fishbowl, Melanie! One of those drinks you are supposed to _share_.” She appeared back in the hallway carrying two glasses of wine.

“I did share!”

“You damn near slapped me when I tried to take a piece of fruit”

“That’s what you get for trying to take a strawberry! Georgie, you know they’re my favorite.” She leaned her head back on the office chair to inspect the ceiling. “God, that thing was practically a swimming fruit plate. I still can’t handle fruit in my drinks either. Sometimes even seeing a lemon wedge in someone’s water will throw me.”

“So _that’s_ why you always make sure to order your water with no lemon.”

“One of many reasons.” Melanie took the offered glass from Georgie. “Now if you’re quite finished teasing me for my past indiscretions, I believe we have work to do.”

“Oh, I suppose.” Grinning, Georgie shoved Melanie lightly in the shoulder. Redirecting her attention to the studio’s computer, she asked, “Is it finished transferring the footage yet?”

“Yeah, it just finished.”

She clicked open a few folders and started organizing and labeling files. “Thanks again, Melanie, for taking me down there. I hope you don’t get in trouble with your new boss.”

“Nah, it’ll be fine. Ever since I’ve found out about the tunnels I’ve been wanting to have a peek. This was a great excuse not to have to go it alone.” She started absentmindedly rubbing her leg before shaking it off. “Besides, the guys at work avoid it like they're afraid they might stumble upon the boss’s secret porn dungeon or something. I doubt they’ll notice anything has been disturbed.”

Georgie snorted in her wine at the mention of a ‘secret porn dungeon’. “Well if there was something like that down there, we didn’t manage to find it. I was kind of disappointed really. The ambiance was spooky enough but the only really _weird_ thing about the place was how deep those stairs went. That close to the Thames, the water table should be too high for that kind of architecture.”

“And if I hadn’t of stopped you, we would still be walking down the damn things.”

“What? I wanted to get to the bottom.”

“It didn’t make you nervous? They way they just _kept going down_?”

“It was weird, yeah, but they were just stairs. There might be some EVP on the recorder but…” Georgie shrugged. “We were only five floors down.  Deep for that part of London, sure, but not infinite. We were probably only one landing away from the bottom when you made us come back up.”

Staring off into the middle distance, Melanie shuddered and took a sip of wine. “Something just felt very… wrong. The last few times I ignored that feeling, it… didn’t go well for me.” She swallowed more wine and met Georgie’s eyes. “If something happened down there I didn’t want one of us to have to drag the other up five freaking flights of stairs.”

“Fair enough,” Georgie conceded. “Did you get anything on night-vision?”

“Not much, no.” She gestured to the camera on the floor next to her. “Not that I was really expecting anything. It’s the Cambridge Military Hospital all over again.

“Hm?” Georgie’s eyes narrowed in confusion, her attention now distracted by the screen before her.

Melanie shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. We got plenty of sound recorded and podcasts aren’t a visual medium anyway. You should at least get an episode of ‘What the Ghost?’ out of our little expedition.

Georgie took a long swig of her wine and squinted angrily at her computer. “I’m not sure about that, most of the files seem to be pretty corrupted. I’m not sure that it would be worth the effort of trying to clean them up.”

Melanie threw her hands up in exasperation. “We have to have gotten _something_ we were down there for hours!”

“Well, if nothing else, I had fun.” She set her glass down and turned to fully face the other woman. “We got to hang out like old times. It’s been a while, Melanie. You fell off the grid for a bit there, I was worried about you. Lots of us were.”

“You worried, I will believe, but most of the others couldn’t give less of a shit. I’ve always been on the abrasive end, I know that. The community is pretty small and as much as we say we’re all friends in this business there’s a lot of competition. One fewer person at the table, well…

“You know what? It’s fine. I’m fine. I have a new job. A steady job. The coworkers are weird, but that’s anything with other people isn’t it?” Melanie studied the wine in her glass for a beat before raising it in a toast. “Beats the hell out of working retail.”   

“I’ll drink to that.” Georgie said, clinking glasses.

Both women drained their wine and shared a brief silence. Melanie toyed with the stem of her glass while Georgie idly swirled the dregs.

“Well,” Georgie said finally, “there might not be enough to make a whole episode but I can probably salvage enough to use it as a segment in a larger show or some Pateron bonus content.

“That’s the spirit!”

“Speaking of spirits,” Georgie gave her empty glass another turn, “grab the bottle. I need a refill and this could take a while.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Why did it have to be Latin?” Georgie moaned into a couch cushion hours later. “Only one clip with anything resembling electronic voice phenomena and it’s in goddamned _Latin!”_

“Pretentious spooks?” Melanie offered

“Pretentious as _fuck_.” She held her glass out to Melanie. “Top me off?”

Melanie upended the empty bottle over Georgie’s glass. “Looks like that was the last of it.

“Hmph!” She huffed in annoyance then cocked an eyebrow at Melanie. “I don’t suppose you’re up for cracking a third?

Melanie shook her head. “No, I’m done but I think I could scrounge up a fish bowl if you want to go it alone.

“Ha, ha.” She intoned dryly. “I guess that means it’s time to switch to water then.” Unfolding herself from the couch, Georgie stretched and headed toward the kitchen. “You want one?”

“That’d be great.”

Georgie stopped in the hallway, looking over her shoulder to catch Melanie’s eye. “Lemon?”

“Bitch.” Melanie chuckled.

“Love you too, Melanie King.” Georgie sent an over exaggerated wink at the woman still on the sofa and disappeared into the kitchen.

She returned shortly holding two water glasses, mercifully free of any fruit. Handing one to Melanie, Georgie collapsed back on the couch beside her. Snuggling in, she rested her head on Melanie’s shoulder with a sigh of contentment.

Melanie rested her own head atop Georgie’s and wrapped an arm around her back. “Well, it wasn’t a total loss. A bit of pompous EVP and a story about staircases into nowhere should make your Patreon backers happy.”

“I suppose," she sighed. "Ugh, _Latin_!”

“Yes, Latin. Why are you so hung up about it?”

“It’s just… at uni… I just hate Latin, okay?” She sat up, grabbed a pillow off the couch, and screamed into it.

“Okay?” Melanie really didn’t know what was going on but she figured she would let Georgie burn herself out on it. She would calm down soon enough.

There was a noise from behind the closed guest bedroom door and a bleary eyed Jonathan Sims stumbled into the hallway quickly followed by the Admiral. “What is it!? What’s going on?” He held his hands in front of him unsure if he should be readying to fight or to defend.

“ _Jon?_ ” Melanie stood to face the disheveled Archivist. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“What? I-- Ms. King, I didn’t…” His scanning eyes found Georgie, still yelling curses into the pillow. “What did you do to Georgie?”

“What did _I_ do? I didn’t do anything!” her voice growing higher at the unjust accusation.

He held a hand out to Georgie, “Well clearly you did something.”

“She just started ranting about how much she hates Latin, I do--”

“Oi! Stop it, you too.” Georgie had finished emptying her frustration into the pillow and was now sitting upright with her arms crossed. The Admiral leapt onto the couch and settled himself on her lap.

Both Jon and Melanie pulled up short and turned their attention to the woman on the couch.

Jon deflated and cast his eyes down, mumbling out an apology.

Shocked, Melanie looked back and forth from the Georgie to the defeated looking man. His hair had gotten significantly more gray since she’d last seen him. Dark circles had taken up residence under his eyes, and he had a hollow, starved look about him. Not at all the man she had traded barbs with before she left for India.

“Thank you.” Georgie nodded. She looked at Jon and her expression softened. “I’m sorry for waking you. I know you haven’t been sleeping much lately.”

He reached up to scratch the back of his head. “It’s fine.” He looked up at Georgie. “Are you alright? I heard screaming.”

Recovering her bearings, Melanie interjected, “Now Hang on a minute. What is _he_ doing _here_?”

“It’s complicated.” Jon sighed.

“I wasn’t talking to _you_.”

“Mel, be nice.” she used the same tone of voice as when scolding the Admiral. “ He’s crashing here for a bit while he works some things out, it’s fine.”

“Huh,” She sank back onto the couch, “I didn’t realize the two of you had…”

“Oh! No, It’s not, I just-- I’m in the spare room.” Jon stuttered. “In fact, I should…” He turned to head back from whence he came.

“Jon, wait!” Georgie called after him. “You know Latin, right?”

Jon turned back to face the living room. “A bit, yes. Why?”

“I’ve got some EVP but it’s probably in Latin and I was wondering if you could have a listen. Maybe tell me what they’re saying.”

“I guess? I mean, yes, sure. No problem.”

“Great!” She stood up from the couch, dislodging the Admiral with a huff of protest. She raised an arm with her index finger extended and declared, “To the studio!” Georgie strode off in the direction of her pointing.

Melanie stared after her and then at Jon. They locked gazes for a moment before she rolled her eyes, shrugged, and followed after Georgie, Jon at her heels.

Georgie had queued up the audio file and handed a pair of headphones to Jon. “It’s pretty quiet and it needed a decent amount of cleanup, but I’m pretty sure there is something there.

When Jon put the headphones over his ears he expected the familiar hiss of cassette tape to greet him. He was met only with mild digital distortion. Below it all he could just make out a faint voice.

_Vigilo... Audio... Opperior...Vigilo... Audio... Opperior...Vigilo... Audio... Opperior...Vigilo…_

Jon tore the headphones from his skull and backed up into the wall, shaking. “W-w-where did you…” He trailed off, throwing his hands up, erecting a barrier between him and the computer.

“Jesus, Jon, it’s just a little EVP, barely even there.” Melanie scoffed.

“ _Where did you record that_!?”

Georgie shot Melanie a look. She had idly hoped to keep their little trip a secret from Jon. It looked as if that particular ship had sailed.

He caught the silent exchange between the two women and wheeled around toward Melanie. “You took her to the Institute!” He pointed an accusing finger in her face.

“Jon,” Georgie calmly put a hand on his outstretched arm, “I asked her to take me. It was fine. Nothing bad happened, we’re fine.”

Eyes heavy with betrayal, he dropped his hand to his side. He opened his mouth but was unable to find words to form. Pressing his lips firmly together he inhaled deeply though his nose.

“Georgie, those tunnels are _dangerous._ There are… things… down there. Promise me you won’t go back.”

Melanie had just about enough of this bullshit and laid into Jon. “Look, I don’t know what you’re on about but Georgie here is a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions. We both have experience in the field, we’re not a bunch of drunk students breaking into some abandoned building. We can handle this.”

“Besides,” Georgie piped in, “this was supposed to be a lady’s night. No boys allowed.” She pointed her finger in his face, landing on his nose, before bouncing off. She briefly considered making a “boop” noise as she poked his nose but decided against it. She wasn’t _that_ drunk.

Jon withered under the assault of two against one. “Yes, well…” He broke eye contact and suddenly became very interested in the texture of the soundproofing along the wall. “I suppose I should get out of your hair then. Enjoy the rest of your 'lady’s night'.” He slid between Melanie and the wall to head through the door.

“Jon?” Georgie asked, “What did it say?”

“It said... ‘ _Vigilo  Audio  Opperior.’_ ” He took a shaking breath and continued. “Listening. Watching. Waiting.”

“Where do I know that from?” Melanie asked.

He chewed on his lower lip and considered not answering but she deserved to know. “It's the Institute motto, written on the crest.”

“Huh,” Georgie folded her arms, “really is a pretentious prat hanging out under your old job.”

He let out a tired laugh, “Yeah, it would seem.”

"Well, not your problem now anymore is it?" Melanie shot at Jon's back as he turned to leave. 

"Maybe not mine, but it is yours. Good luck with the new job, Ms. King." He skulked back to the guest room and closed it gently behind him.

Melanie stood, frozen for a moment trying to work over the implications of what just happened. Georgie, bless her, broke the silence. 

"More wine?"

"Yes, please."


End file.
